Tesla CEO Elon Musk pledges to pay back the company’s loan to the Department of Energy in five years instead of ten. Musk says if the DOE should be criticized for failures like Solyndra it should be praised for successes like Tesla. Read more »
It’s official. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu says he will step down and will likely return to academic life and teaching. Read more »
Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu is leaving his position, and the news will be announced next week, reports Bloomberg. If true, it’s an end of an era for the Obama Administration. Read more »
The U.S. government continues to give small grants to early stage next-generation battery technology in an effort to boost innovation in the U.S., and provide energy storage for electric cars and the power grid. Read more »
Battery innovation, at least at the prototype level, is alive and well in the U.S. and could even lead the next-generation of transportation and grid tech. Read more »
Bill Gates told an audience of energy entrepreneurs, scientists and investors at the ARPA-E energy conference on Tuesday that “It’s crazy how little we’re funding energy.” Read more »
Private equity firm Silver Lake’s first foray into energy and cleantech investing is gonna be a big one. According to a filing, Silver Lake Kraftwerk is raising a $1.25 billion fund and has closed a little over $200 million of it. Read more »
The dream of the “hydrogen highway” in recent years has morphed into a tech for industrial applications like to power forklifts and fleet vehicles. Pike Research estimates that there will only be 5,200 hydrogen fueling stations throughout the world by 2020. Read more »
As expected, at an event at the White House on Monday, Obama administration officials unveiled a slew of programs and initiatives that will aim to help add information technology to the power grid to make the grid more efficient and more secure. Read more »
On Monday morning the White House plans to hold an event focused on the smart grid that will discuss new private and public initiatives for how to implement a smarter power grid in the U.S. Read more »
Want to see history in the making? I shot this 30-second video of California Governor Jerry Brown signing a bill into law that requires utilities to source 33 percent of their electricity from clean power by 2020. Read more »
Can the U.S. government do for clean power, what it did for airplane technology almost a century ago? That’s the plan that nerd-rockstar Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu detailed at the Berkeley Stanford Cleantech Conference this weekend. Read more »
After the Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu spoke on stage at the ARPA-E Summit on Tuesday, he joined a group of reporters and answered questions candidly about the budget cuts, the high-risk early stage tech that was funded by ARPA-E and oil prices. Read more »
Since influencers are what makes the greentech industry world go round, we thought we’d bring you the 10 individuals that we think had the biggest effect on the greentech sector this year. From corporate bigwigs to policy wonks, these are the people changing the sector. Read more »
Everyone’s favorite DOE Chief Steven Chu was mighty busy today — he ushered in a report that establishes “solar energy zones” on public lands, as well as an announcement that the DOE will give out $184 million in grants for efficient vehicle technology project. Read more »
O.K., so there’s been a whole lotta funding news today. Here’s something a bit lighter. This weekend at a holiday gift fair in San Francisco I bought an awesome t-shirt featuring rockstar Department of Energy’s Chief Steven. Actually I bought like three of them. Read more »
Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu shows off the DOE’s new cool roof and explains the benefits of ditching a dark roof and opting for a cooler (lighter one). Read more »
All hail the open-source scientist. Open collaboration in energy innovation will be a key part of fighting climate change, said Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu in Cancun, Mexico, at a side event to the U.N. negotiations. Read more »
A public official with a sense of humor is seriously refreshing. The DOE’s Chief Steven Chu sings praise for a particularly funny article in The Onion entitled, “Report: Global Warming Issue From 2 or 3 Years Ago May Still Be Problem,” on his official Facebook page. Read more »
With Solyndra’s announcement this morning that it will lay off dozens of workers and close its first factory, the question over whether or not the DOE’s flagship loan guarantee to Solyndra was a mistake has been answered. And yep, it’s a disaster. Read more »
Energy Secretary Steven Chu stopped by Google headquarters on Friday to talk about green technology. He would like China to invest in America’s green future, not own it. To challenge China’s growing lead, the U.S. may have to boost its support of homegrown technologies. Read more »
Move over, climate and energy wonks; this is shaping up to be a triple-feature week of the geeks. Steve Jobs talked energy and innovation with President Obama, Bill Gates poured $700,000 into the fight against Prop. 23, and Energy Secretary Steven Chu is heading to Google. Read more »
A group of 20 senators is urging the Department of Energy to open its loan guarantee program to projects meant to increase U.S. production of rare earth elements, a group of metals used in used in a variety of green technologies. Read more »
President Obama’s visit to Smith Electric Vehicles in Kansas City, Mo. last week was just a warm-up for what’s shaping up to be a full-on electric car and battery offensive by the White House this week. Read more »
The newest music video by pop music sensation/possible crazy person Lady Gaga is a darker spin on her signature “out there” style. While free of product placement (as well as eyeliner) it’s getting a perfectly-executed premiere courtesy of Vevo and YouTube. Read more »
A German appeals court recently dismissed a lower court verdict against Switzerland-based one-click host site RapidShare, noting that the company can’t be held responsible for the actions of its users. The Dusseldorf-based court also found that there are no reasonable ways for RapidShare to control file […] Read more »
Out of all the carbon-free power options, nuclear power faces some of the highest hurdles to commercial-scale deployment. But that’s also the reason why supercomputing has started to truly revolutionize the world of nuclear power innovation. Read more »
In times of national need, history has shown that countries can innovate fast — with enough funding. The government has been able to say “Deliver the goods now, we need them, quickly,” and has seen successful results, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu said in a talk today […] Read more »
You know what’s a bummer? Being tied to an office answering to the man. After all, getting work done on a beach, at a café or at home is still getting work done. That’s why LogMeIn Free is perfect for the remote or flex-time worker. It […] Read more »
Energy Secretary Steven Chu — the rockstar geek Nobel Prize winner — announced at the first ARPA-E summit on Tuesday that the Department of Energy will hand out $100 million in a third round of grants to early stage greentech startups through the ARPA-E program. Specifically […] Read more »
One of Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s top, if often overlooked, priorities has been to keep the U.S. from falling behind in the race to train the next-generation of scientists and engineers to build tomorrow’s energy technologies. “Strong support of scientists in the early career years is […] Read more »
For at least one green car maker out there, tomorrow may be the lucky day. According to a press advisory from the Department of Energy today, Secretary Steven Chu will — drumroll please — “make a loan announcement” related to the agency’s advanced technology vehicle loan […] Read more »
On the cusp of a new generation of electric vehicles and the buildout of a smart grid, connected cars — vehicles linked to the power grid and communication networks — could mean a transportation system for the digital age. Here are the key players involved. Read more »
Over the weekend, I did a bit of research into my crazy new idea. As my Palm Pre was put on notice back in November, I’m looking at dropping it for an fast, new Android device in the first quarter of 2010. I have an iPhone […] Read more »
In an initiative that we heard vaguely referenced over the weekend, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu has announced an international agreement that will see developed nations give $350 million, including $85 million from the U.S., to developing nations . Called the Renewables and Efficiency Deployment Initiative (REDI), the plan […] Read more »
Focusing on a few high-profile U.S. positions at Copenhagen, it’s easy to get discouraged about what the U.S. is bringing to the table at the climate change negotiations. State Department special climate envoy Todd Stern is already calling two draft proposals nonstarters, and then there’s Sen. […] Read more »
Updated: Chu just announced $620 million for 32 smart grid stimulus demonstration projects, including 16 awards worth $435 million for general smart grid projects and 16 awards for a total of $185 million for energy storage technology. Here’s a list of the winners. Read more »
At the Apple iPod event this past September, the iPod nano got a video upgrade, but despite rumors to the contrary, the iPod touch didn’t get a similar treatment. The Internet was ablaze with expectation thanks to the appearance of a number of iPod touch cases […] Read more »
We’re big fans of the way the Microsoft Xbox LIVE game show 1 vs. 100 blurs the lines between TV and gaming. As the second season of 1 vs. 100 starts today (at 5 p.m. PT! Rush home and get in the mob!), it will have […] Read more »
AppleGazette’s Kevin Whipps addresses the quandary over how to choose between a MacBook and a MacBook Pro, noting that it used to be that if you wanted a 13-inch Mac laptop (excluding the MacBook Air), the only option was the original MacBook. Now with a 13-inch […] Read more »
